AMSTERDAM NEXT | CITY GUIDE

The 3rd edition of Chocoa Festival, the Amsterdam chocolate festival for all chocolate lovers, will take place from March 6th to 8th at the Beurs van Berlage, in the heart of Amsterdam.For this occasion I collected some of the best chocolate addresses in town, and personally tried and tested some, not really the worst job to be honest! Find a selection here on the blog, and a list of all my favourite places to get your daily dose of chocolate in the highlights section of my Amsterdam City guide APP

Chocoa FestivalTasting, enjoying and discovering new flavours is key during Chocoa Festival. Other products complimenting the chocolate will be present as well such as wine, coffee, tea and craft beer. Take a journey trough the cocoa chain and learn how chocolate is being made from bean to bar. Learn to recognize the qualities of good cocoa and discover the wide variety of flavours that exists. There are no less than 700 different flavors which can be tasted in better chocolate. Develop your senses and appreciate extraordinaty pairings. Chocolate makers from Brazil, Peru, Mexico, England, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands and many more will tell you about the origins of their products and how they contribute to positive changes in living conditions of cocoa farmers and their environment. Buy your early bird ticket at the Chocoa Festival websiteChocoa festivalBeurs van BerlageDamrak 243
1012 ZJ Amsterdam

Pucinni Bomboni
A chocolate tasting at Pucinni Bomboni may easily let you forget all other chocolate you ever tasted before. Chosen in Europe’s top 10 list of best chocolatiers, Pucinni Bomboni offers a variety of flavours from ginger to mint and from caramel to cognac and spicy or sweet. They have the best sprinkles in town... you might know we Dutch love our chocolate sprinkle sandwiches. All chocolate is without any preservatives, handmade in their own kitchen and for sale at 3 different locations in town.

Metropolitan DeliBonbons, pastries and authentically delicious Italian ice-cream. As soon as you enter the store you'll smell their 70% pure home made chocolate. The place to have a warm chocolate, cacaotea or taste a cacaobeer! Check the website for different choclate tasting workshops.

Urban cacao is the place for where refined chocolates are produced, celebrated and sold. Chocolate bars, pralines, cake, ice-cream and coffee with a large factory at the backUrban Cacao Amsterdam Rozengracht 2001016 NK AmsterdamOpening hours:Monday Noon-7PMTuesday to Friday 10AM-7PMSaturday 10AM-6PMSunday Noon-6PM
Area: Rozengracht
Website: Urban Cacao

ArtiChocThe finest chocolate in combination with fresh fruit and cream, nuts and alcohol and wine from their neighbour all made in the open kitchen in the back of this stylish store in the South of town, a great place also for customers with different allergies or food intolerances.. we personally tried the ‘truffels with cream’ and ‘Cherry liqueur’ bonbons ArtiChoc
Koninginneweg 1411075 CM AmsterdamOpening hours:
Tuesday - Friday 9:30AM - 6PM
Saturday 9:30AM - 5PM
closed on Monday and Sunday

Dutch Homemade
When walking in at Dutch Home made this store with a large selection of Macarons might look a macarons only store but is also an address for bonbons, pies and coffee. The picture of the interior of the Haarlemmerstraat store, which I really like is made some months ago on a quiet moment. You can sit for a coffee and try the macarons, the beautiful pies or bonbons. I tried the 70% pure 'Vietnam' bonbon!

With two stores downtown, the one in Haarlemmerstraat being my favourite, and not just because they pour out some really good wine on weekend afternoons, Tenue de Nîmes is a really accessible store for both the denim lover looking for selected brands including their private label, but also think Blue Japan, Momotaro, Orslow Jeans, Big John The Real McCoy, L.V.C, as well as the tourists from all ages, looking for something new to wear or buy.Both the store at Haarlemmerstraat and Elandsgracht have amazing interiors with a mix of fashion, shoes, books, jewellery and a selection brands for your interior. I am madly in love with their collection of Mad et Len, candles & lava rock stones in black handcrafted metal design. Tenue de NîmesHaarlemmerstraat 92-941013 EV AmsterdamArea: HaarlemmerbuurtTenue de NîmesElandsgracht 601016 TX AmsterdamWebsite: Tenue de Nîmes

End of Januari First of Augustopened FoA.Fragments at Gerard Douplein 15, a temporary space where the multiple elements of First of August come together: a Store, Stock&Sample Sale and Showroom. I popped in the other day and not only fell in love with their bags collection but also loved the space, an overall white ambience with a dark black painted ceiling. FoA temporary store is open till the 1st of March!First of August is an Amsterdam-based fashion company of Karlijn Boersma. She graduated at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and gained a Master degree in Cultural Sociology, with a strong focus on the relation between fashion and sociological trends. The inspiration out of moments in Karlijn’s daily life assembled into the three elements that First of August exists of today; a clothinglabel FoA, an online store and a platform FoA. Academy. First of August invites you to shop, learn and visit!

Today a sneak peek in the world of Anouk Beerents, who is specialised in the import and export of antique, and authentic quality mirrors, the majority of which are of French and Italian origin with gilded gold or silver leaf. Anouk has an amazing studio downtown, a real hidden gem on Prinsengracht at the nine streets area.

I looked very often through the huge industrial doors to drool over the 450 m2 refurbished factory where Anouk accommodates her collection of more than 300 mirrors from the 18th and 19th century. You can even park your car inside the studio when visiting, and how cute is the little black Fiat 500 parked behind the wood stove.

When working on my city guide APP I made a picture from the outside of her studio and decided to sent her an email asking her if I could come and visit her studio. Not much later she invited me over and sitting at the big table, surrounded by hundreds of mirrors, a red burning stove, a sleeping dog and the smell of coffee I felt in heaven for a short while.

Anouk gave me a little tour through her workspace and showed me where she, if necessary restores the mirrors in her own workshop, where all possible restoration is done according to the traditional techniques. If necessary, the mirrors will be gilded with gold leaf or silver leaf while always preserving the original antique mirror glass. If you ever decide of purchasing an authentic mirror for your home, you know where to find Anouk's studio... by appointment only.

For my interior design blog Vosgesparis, I travel around Europe with an International team of influencers to discover new design, or even design ourselves! | We designed a range of candles in beautiful black called KOTO with Scandinavian brand Skandinavisk | and work at different fairs. This is also how I got to work with Nomess and their products at Designtrade, now called Northmodernwhere we build up a Bloggerzone. I am in love with their smart storage solutions and they are definitely one of my favourite Scandinavian brands!
Nomess Pop-up shops at the Bijenkorf
Starting this Monday February 16, Nomess will open several Pop-Up shops in four different Bijenkorf stores, kicking of in Amsterdam, 3rd floor, till April 7. Come and visit and join us on Instagram! Join us on InstagramMake a picture showing your favourite product from the pop up shop and use the hashtag #Nomessvosgesparisto win your own Nomess goodies in next months giveaway party on my blog Vosgesparis!Wanna follow us... find us here @Nomesscph | @debijenkorf | @vosgesparisUse #Nomessvosgesparis

Nomess Copenhagen was founded in 2007 by Suzanne Potts, due to her own demand for organising, simplicity and aesthetic indulgence. All products are designed for the single purpose of making everyday life easier. For Nomess the functionality in organising objects can’t stand alone - it simply needs aesthetics to function. Those two qualities are the foundation of Nomess Copenhagen - and the vision.

When visiting a town for a short, or if you are lucky longer, citybreak, we all have our favourite stores where we just 'need' to shop before heading home. Whenever I am in Paris myself I never leave the city without visiting my Parisian favourite 'Merci'. I wrote endless blogs about the store on my other blog Vosgesparis, which you can read here.

You and Amsterdam!

Leaving Paris, kinda feel nostalgic every time and sometimes I wish I could bring a bit of Paris with me. This made me think of you and Amsterdam and about bringing a real piece of Amsterdam with you! Which made me decide to select some really great souvenirs made by inhabitants of Amsterdam and inspired by the town we love. With this new feature AMS INSPRD I love to show you different and unexpected ways to take a piece of Amsterdam with you when travelling home.

AMS INSPRD

Bring the scent of Amsterdam with you in a perfume, or cutting board made out trees that has been growing in our streets, and given us shadow for years... or get yourself a bike shipped home, rebuild from a recovered frame of one of the many bikes you see in Amsterdam! Enjoy our AMS INSPRD selection.

Like last year I had a quick visit to Design Icons, with the new ferry departing from the Eastern Docklands where I live, I literally only had to cross the water this year. Even though I am not a huge vintage fan, I do appreciate the iconic Scandinavian and Dutch design pieces and particularly love the few industrial.

The Industrial hall where the event takes place has one of the best Photo backdrops I know which make every piece stand out. Showing you a few pictures on the blog, for more have a look at the slideshow above.... with a small focus on the many work-desks I spotted today!

Last month I wrote a short report on Vosgesparis about The Unfold, an event where selected brands shared their stories at the beautiful location of the playing circle event space at Prinsengracht, you might remember the location from The Loft. Living in Amsterdam is definitely a plus as many events take place in my hometown and most of the time I can just bike downtown. To be honest I hate biking in winters though.... I am not that die-hard Dutch girl who bike no matter what. And in winters I love to take the bus, put in my earplugs and just enjoy the ride. Even more then biking on cold days I definitely don't like biking in the rain and I refuse to wear ugly plastic rain gear. Of course that is okay if you visit Amsterdam, rent a bike and discover the city like a local!

Can you imagine I loved the Raindress by BYBROWN spotted at the event. Creative director Melanie Brown told me most women, just like me, actually prefer to just get their clothes totally wet by the rain then wearing ugly rain gear. Which brought her to design an elegant 100% water- and windproof Raindress to fit over your normal clothing and engineered for the bicycle, that would fit in any high end fashion store.

Roetz - not just a bike -Let's stay in Amsterdam and talk some more about bikes! In the Netherlands over one million bikes are sold each year. And as many bikes are thrown away! In Amsterdam we kind of recycle them... ask any Amsterdam inhabitant if they ever 'lost' their bike! Fact is, many get stolen but also many are left behind when not functioning anymore... and many end up thrown in the canals.

Now this is where Roetz comes in, a young bicycle brand with a mission! By recycling as many components as possible, they want to reduce this mountain of waste and make beautiful sustainable and robust bikes in an environmental friendly way.

Natural materials & meaningful collaborations
Usable parts are saved and if you think on how many different bikes cycle around every day, you will understand every bike made by Roetz is different! The combination of bright painted frames and the used colours given the bikes a vintage look. Every bike is supplemented with components made from as many natural materials as possible, like wooden mudguards (FSC) coming from a furniture factory in Germany, and cork handles made in Portugal. Although I do not drink beer I loved the beer carrier made out of recycled conveyor belt.

Unfold the untold
Unfold was about meeting, about listening, about storytellers and about getting to know... yourself, each other and the stories behind the people and the brands. There was delicious food and drinks by Gewoon eten en meer and the new Amsterdam gin brand Vørding’s put together by De dronken vegetarier.

The Story of Roetz
I thought the story of Roetz was really interesting, their collaboration with sheltered workshops forms an important part of the making of a Roetz-Bike. By doing so they help people to have a useful daytime activity and make bikes to be proud of. Every bike comes with a card and the name of the person who made it for you .... the card can be sent back to the creater, and you can let him know how much you love your new bike.

Roetz Bikes - an Amsterdam Inspired souvenirBeing a real Amsterdam product I selected Roetz Bikes for the new Amsterdam inspired collection on the blog, other selections can be found here AMS INSPRD

Through a collaboration with GUP Magazine, MARIE-STELLA-MARIS found an inspiring approach to share their social story with the world. Talented photographers were facilitated to shoot documentary images and autonomous work, whilst visiting one of the clean drinking water projects supported by the MARIE-STELLA-MARIS Foundation. Portrait and documentary photographer, Linelle Deunk, visited the clean drinking water project in Uganda. Till February 14, 25 of her black and white images, will be exhibited in the Kahmann Gallery, Lindengracht 35, Amsterdam.

Blogging the city - Amsterdam

Amsterdam Next is an Amsterdam City Guide blog by the author of Vosgesparis, an awarded interior design blog. Focused on Lifestyle and Interior design I made the AMS NXT City guide where I collect my personal favourites in town.

Find out where to look for Dutch design, the coolest concept stores and shop for yourself, your friends and your home. Use the guide to discover the different streets and areas and everything they offer, from fashion to concept store to breakfast and coffee.

The 'AMS NXT city guide' APP is no longer available from December 2018, I will add all selected hotspots to the site asap

How to use the guide

Check out the different areas in the section below | Amsterdam by Area| or via the tab at the top |AMS by area|where you will find more about each area and a few selected stores I think are interesting for Interior design, fashion and coffee addicts. As said we used to have an app with lots. We are working on a new format to add all info to the site.